EPHGRAVE, Digswell, late 19th century March, 2003	Answers Places Digswell
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Janice Longmire (clitheroejl @t bigpond.com.au) of Australia says: Percy William Ephgrave was born 1897, at Digswell, Hertfordshire. His father was named John. Both Percy and his father John, went to China, and were warehousemen, and later traders there in Shanghi. Percy begat  a son John and three daughters Gladys Mary, Marjorie, and one other. Can you tell me anything about Percy's parents.

As you have a name and a date/place of birth the recommended starting point in any guide to family history would be to buy a copy of Percy's birth certificate (in this case from HALS) - so maybe you have already tried this and failed. The index is currently being put on line in the FreeBMD project under Rootsweb and while it is not yet complete a search reveals only one entry:

Births Dec 1893    Ephgrave, Percy John     Hatfield 3a 54?(or 56?)

If you purchase a copy of this certificate from HALS it will give the names of Percy's parents (including his mother's maiden name), the address of the birth (usually at home) and the father's occupation. (A birth at Digswell would normally have been registered at Hatfield.)

More information can be got from the 1901 census and while you will need to purchase a copy of the relevant census page to get full details, Percy's family would appear to be:

Thomas and his family are also listed in the 1881 census - and as this is available online at familysearch, you can check details for yourself.

Clearly there is not a perfect fit with your Percy William Ephgrave, but Percy Ephgrave is a very unusual name with only three persons with that name being recorded in the UK in the 1901 census and only one in the FreeBMD index. Digswell is only a small village and the above is the only Ephgrave family living there.

Basically, in the records I have consulted there is no evidence of a Percy William Ephgrave, son of John, born at Digswell in 1897, but there is a Percy John Ephgrave born in Digswell in 1893. Are they the same person? You will need to decide how reliable the information you have is - bearing in mind that many people who went overseas modified details of their backgrounds (virtually always in a socially upwards direction) and that the name a child was known as in a family sometimes differed from what was recorded on a birth certificate.

July 2008

Joanne Page (jomarkpage @t yahoo.ca) of Toronto, Canada, kindly provided the following information: My grandparents on my father's side were Ephgraves and Waldocks, and I am related to the Ephgraves mentioned on your Ephgrave, Digswell page.

I can add that Thomas Ephgrave, 46 and a cowman at Digswell at the time of the 1901 census, was the son of Daniel Ipgrave (the spelling varied greatly over the years) b. 1806 in Datchworth, and Mary Norman, b. c1806 in Stevenage, Herts.

Thomas's wife Eleanor was Eleanor Shadbolt, daughter of Edmund Shadbolt and Ann Gray, and granddaughter of Solomon Shadbolt (transported in 1845 as mentioned elsewhere on your site) and his wife Elinor nee Ewington.
 
Thomas Ephgrave had six siblings. One of his brothers, Emanuel Ephgrave, also married a Shadbolt - Fanny, daughter of Charles Shadbolt and Hannah Jane Gray - sister of Ann Gray.  

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any information on Percy John Ephgrave to throw any light on his going to China - yet. I will keep searching.

The history of the Shadbolt, Ephgrave and Gray families is full of fascinating stories - often very sad, but also showing the courage and strength that enabled these Hertfordshire folk to survive, often against all odds. 

Thanks for helping those of us with roots in Hertfordshire - especially those like me who are 'in exile' - to connect with the county and our ancestors.